Court video, updates: Prosecution in Karen Read’s retrial calls 2nd witness to the stand

DEDHAM, Mass. — The first and second witnesses in the retrial of Karen Read were called to the stand after opening statements in her second murder trial over the death of her police officer boyfriend were delivered Tuesday in Dedham’s Norfolk Superior Court.

Read is accused of striking her boyfriend, John O’Keefe, with her SUV in 2022 and leaving him to die alone in the snow outside of a house party in Canton. She has been charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a vehicle under the influence, and leaving the scene.

Watch Boston 25’s LIVE coverage of Karen Read’s retrial

Special prosecutor Hank Brennan delivered opening remarks on behalf of the Commonwealth, while defense attorney Alan Jackson opened for the Read legal team.

“I hit him, I hit him, I hit him,” Brennan opened with. Jackson countered, “There was no collision with John O’Keefe.”

Witness testimony then started at noon with the prosecution calling its first witness to the stand: Timothy Nuttall, a firefighter/paramedic with the Canton Fire Department.

Nuttall testified that he treated O’Keefe at the scene of his death and recalled Read repeatedly saying, “I hit him,” when she was asked about what happened.

About three hours after Nuttall took the stand, Brennan called his second witness, Kerry Roberts.

Roberts was with Read when they found O’Keefe’s body in the snow. She testified that she was “very close friends” with him.

Follow live court updates from Ted Daniel:

PREVIOUS STORY

After nine men and nine women were seated for the jury, Read told reporters that she is “anxious but ready” for opening statements. Over 600 prospective jurors were screened during jury selection.

“I’ve been ready. I have no choice but to be ready,” she said. “I feel strong, I’ve got an amazing team, and I’m anxious.”

Read’s attorneys had filed an emergency appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court for a delay in the trial, contending that trying her again on second-degree murder and leaving the scene would be double jeopardy. The high court denied the delay and is expected to consider her appeal on April 25.

Read, who lives in Mansfield, Massachusetts, is accused of striking her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, with her SUV and leaving him to die in a snowstorm in 2022 outside a house party in nearby Canton. Her attorneys have said O’Keefe was actually killed by someone else, possibly another law enforcement agent who was at the party, and that she was framed.

Last year, the judge declared a mistrial after jurors said they were at an impasse and deliberating further would be futile.

After the trial, several jurors came forward to say the group was unanimous in finding Read not guilty of the most serious charge, second-degree murder, and a lesser charge. Despite attempts by Read’s lawyers to get those charges dismissed, she will face the same counts as she did at her first trial. They also failed to have the entire case tossed, arguing governmental misconduct.

During opening statements, the prosecution plans to use media interviews that Read has given against her.

In an exclusive interview with Boston 25’s Ted Daniel in February, Read proclaimed that she has “nothing to hide” and that she’s “been framed.”

Up to 150 witnesses could be called to testify during the trial, and Judge Beverly Cannone has estimated that proceedings could last through mid-June.

A rocky relationship turns deadly

Read, who worked as a financial analyst and as a Bentley College adjunct professor before she was charged, faces second-degree murder and other charges in the death of John O’Keefe, who was 46 when he died. The 16-year police veteran was found unresponsive outside the home of a fellow Boston police officer.

After a night out drinking, prosecutors say Read, who is 45, dropped off O’Keefe at the house party just after midnight. As she made a three-point turn, prosecutors say, she struck O’Keefe before driving away. She returned hours later to find him in a snowbank.

As they did at the first trial, prosecutors will try to convince jurors that Read’s actions were intentional. They are expected to call witnesses who will describe how the couple’s relationship had begun to sour before O’Keefe’s death. Among them will be his brother, who testified during the first trial that the couple regularly argued over such matters as what Read fed O’Keefe’s children, and that he witnessed a 2021 fight the couple had in Cape Cod over how his brother treated her. The brother’s wife testified that Read told her the couple had argued in Aruba after she caught O’Keefe kissing another woman.

The defense blames a third party for O’Keefe’s death

The defense is expected to portray the investigation into O’Keefe’s death as shoddy and undermined by the close relationship investigators had with the police officers and other law enforcement agents who were at the house party.

Among the key witnesses they will call is former State Trooper Michael Proctor, who led the investigation but has since been fired after a disciplinary board found he sent sexist and crude texts about Read to his family and colleagues. He is also on the prosecution’s witness list.

A key moment in the first trial was Proctor’s testimony, in which the defense suggested his texts about Read and the case showed he was biased, and had singled her out early in the investigation and ignored other potential suspects.

They also are expected to suggest Read was framed, saying O’Keefe was actually killed inside the home during a fight with another partygoer and then dragged outside. In the first trial, defense attorneys suggested investigators focused on Read because she was a “convenient outsider” who saved them from having to consider law enforcement officers as suspects.

Ahead of the second trial, the two sides sparred over whether Read’s lawyers will be allowed to argue that someone else killed O’Keefe. Judge Beverly Cannone ruled Monday that attorneys can’t mention potential third-party culprits in their opening statements but will be allowed to develop evidence against Brian Albert, a retired police officer who owned the Canton home, and his friend Brian Higgins. Lawyers cannot implicate Albert’s nephew, Colin Albert, the judge said.

A town-commissioned Canton Police Department audit following O’Keefe’s death was released March 30. While not reinvestigating any cases, its top suggestions regarding Read’s were that first responders should have photographed O’Keefe where he was found before he was moved; that all interviews of “critical witnesses” should have been done at the department after O’Keefe was taken to a hospital; and that agreed-to recordings of witness interviews be conducted.

The defense’s double jeopardy argument fails

Soon after the mistrial, Read’s lawyers set out to get the main charges dropped.

They argued Judge Cannone declared a mistrial without polling the jurors to confirm their conclusions. Defense attorney Martin Weinberg said five jurors indicated after the trial that they were only deadlocked on the manslaughter count and had unanimously agreed that she wasn’t guilty of second-degree murder and leaving the scene, but that they hadn’t told the judge.

The defense said that because jurors had agreed Read wasn’t guilty of murder and leaving the scene, retrying her on those counts would amount to double jeopardy. But Cannone rejected that argument, as did the state’s highest court, a federal court judge, and an appeals court.

Prosecutors had urged Cannone to dismiss the double jeopardy claim, saying it amounted to “hearsay, conjecture and legally inappropriate reliance as to the substance of jury deliberations.” Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally argued that the jurors never indicated they had reached a verdict on any of the charges, were given clear instructions on how to reach a verdict, and that the defense had ample opportunity to object to the mistrial declaration.

A new prosecutor

The second trial will likely look similar to the first. It will be held in the same courthouse before the same judge, and dozens of Read’s passionate supporters are again expected to rally outside. The charges, primary defense lawyers and many of the nearly 200 witnesses will also be the same.

The biggest difference will be the lead prosecutor, Hank Brennan. A former prosecutor and defense attorney who was brought in as a special prosecutor after the mistrial, Brennan has represented several prominent clients, including notorious Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger, and experts think he might be more forceful than Lally was in arguing the case.

Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW

©2025 Cox Media Group